Your Deck Wears Army Boots

Anthony AlongiTuesday, May 27, 2003

ll right, Soldiers, here's our mission: We're going to engage a certain creature type and do it justice for all concerned Americans (and Canadians and Japanese and Turks and the good people of Cameroon and anyone else listening in). And here's the fifty-pound backpack: We're going to do it without using either white cards or any kind of Bird.

Let's make it a sixty-pound backpack, as red is too easy. We'll say red can't be more than half of any given deck's nonland cards. Since black has only three or four Soldiers, and they're stuck with shadow (I'm guessing that if it were ever to see reprint, Dauthi Slayer would feel better as something other than a Soldier!), it looks like an unwinnable battle.

So we'll reduce our mission to two objectives: (1) use blue, and (2) use green.

FIRST OBJECTIVE: USE BLUE

When turning to blue, as folks who remember the "Palm Tree Tag" article know, we can start with Dream Fighter. After that, the "No Bird" restriction above can haunt us a little. We have to dig pretty deep and not be ashamed to splash a little red to help:

I like the irony of having no shadow creatures in a deck named "Shadow Ops," especially when there are perfectly good blue Soldiers with shadow available! But if you don't have some of the rares, Thalakos Scout would be a good substitute. Try to get extra functionality out of the discard by putting Anger or Wonder in there, too.

The creature enchantments are there to give your fairly small creatures some extra punch - and to give your Brawlers something to do when lands are untapped at the wrong time.

Putting restrictions on ourselves like this comes at a price. The deck is underpowered, especially for multiplayer, and would need some serious help to move beyond tricks like Turnabout and Confound. You might consider one or more copies of Prophetic Bolt, or even a plain spell like Fireball, if you play in a group that tends to wield more power. If you're going to break the Soldier theme, stay unblockable with something like Tidal Kraken (which as a Monster will never have its own "tribal" deck anyway).

Okay, okay, the Terravore is not a Soldier. So sue me. But with the Explorer getting lands in play, and the Firebombers and Fault Riders getting them to the graveyard, you should consider it anyway. Think of it as a trusty steed for the Ranger, or whatever.

It would be fair of any of you to point out that I might just be playing a wee bit too much Warcraft III, lately. But this is where my mind is. In any case, this is a deck that doesn't have to worry too often about Akroma, Angel of Wrath - and that's unusual for a red-green deck.

Rules Corner: Snow-Covered Lands

Rules for snow-covered lands from the Comprehensive Rules, for those of you who don't get much of the Ice Age set in your diet:

502.14. Snow-Covered

502.14a Snow-covered is an ability that doesn't do anything in its own right; it's simply a keyword that other cards look for. When a card refers to a "snow-covered land," it means a land with the snow-covered ability. When a card refers to a "snow-covered forest," it means a forest with the snow-covered ability, and so on.

502.14c Some effects can add or remove the snow-covered ability. This doesn't change the existing name of the land. For example, a card named Snow-Covered Forest is named "Snow-Covered Forest," while a forest that has been granted the snow-covered ability is still named "Forest."

Against black recursion, this deck will have some difficulty. Keep the Whip Sergeants available, and wait with a Terravore until you see the Zombie mage tap out. If you're going to surprise anyone the first time you play this deck, make it that guy.